| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: need to employ delicacy or shrewdness in speech; they blurt out things
as they are. Consequently the dandies of Paris did not discover the
great seigneur in the rather heedless young fellow who, in their
talks, would flit from one subject to another, all the more intent
upon amusement because he had just escaped from a great peril, and,
finding himself in a city where his family was unknown, felt at
liberty to lead a loose life without the risk of disgracing his name.
But one fine day in 1834 Adam suddenly bought a house in the rue de la
Pepiniere. Six months later his style of living was second to none in
Paris. About the time when he thus began to take himself seriously he
had seen Clementine du Rouvre at the Opera and had fallen in love with
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: not to receive the gods whom the city receives, and has other new gods.
'Is that the way in which he is supposed to corrupt the youth?' 'Yes, it
is.' 'Has he only new gods, or none at all?' 'None at all.' 'What, not
even the sun and moon?' 'No; why, he says that the sun is a stone, and the
moon earth.' That, replies Socrates, is the old confusion about
Anaxagoras; the Athenian people are not so ignorant as to attribute to the
influence of Socrates notions which have found their way into the drama,
and may be learned at the theatre. Socrates undertakes to show that
Meletus (rather unjustifiably) has been compounding a riddle in this part
of the indictment: 'There are no gods, but Socrates believes in the
existence of the sons of gods, which is absurd.'
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: cry.
"I knew it was no longer in my house," she said, "but--here!----"
"My dear child, I asked for it merely to see what pitch of idiocy a
man of genius may attain to. Sooner or later I should have returned it
to you, for I never expected the pleasure of seeing the original here
face to face with the copy. While we finish our conversation I will
have it carried down to your carriage. And if, armed with such a
talisman, you are not your husband's mistress for a hundred years, you
are not a woman, and you deserve your fate."
Augustine kissed the Duchess' hand, and the lady clasped her to her
heart, with all the more tenderness because she would forget her by
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